The Nightwatch
by That-One-Robin-Egg
Summary: The only privacy she gets is when she retires to her bedroom for the night, and even then he stands outside her door on guard. It's completely unnecessary, no one is crazy enough to attack the princess in her own castle. A Zelink budding friendship fic cause I'm a sucker for those. First LoZ Fic go easy on my soul
1. Chapter 1

She protested heavily to the idea of having an appointed knight. She brought it up every opportunity she could to her father to wait till she was older since in the past princesses weren't assigned their own knights till their 21st birthday, but her father wouldn't hear it.

"It's getting too dangerous for us to wait that long, my dear." He said one night during dinner, "It won't be as bad as you think, I promise."

 _But it will!_ a part of her wanted to spit back, but she bit her tongue and stared down at the plate of steak and peas cooked just for her. She had lost her appetite for anything other than the occasional bowl of fruit or cooked potato. She just wasn't hungry anymore.

"If it makes you feel any better," he father added as she pushed the peas around on her plate, "This won't be a massive ceremony held in Castle town like it should be. It will be at the Knighting grounds in the fields, and it will just be you and the Champions to witness it. No one else."

"Why the Knighting grounds?" she asked curiously, "We only use those grounds for Generals and Royal Guard." He didn't raise his head as he cleared his throat and took a sip from his glass.

"It's a bigger matter than usual knightings, and only a hand full of people would witness it outside of myself and General Soto." He looked up, but his gaze didn't quite meet her face. She knew her father well enough to know the signs of a lie, but she was too tired of arguing to call him out at this point. If he was hiding it from her then odds were that he had a good reason. The sat the next few minutes in silence as she tried to eat something, but every time the fork got near her mouth she had to fight back a gag. She was just barely able to eat the glazed peaches sat out for dessert before they both retired to their rooms for the night.

Zelda could see the Knighting grounds from the bridge leading to her study if she stood on her toes in the right spot. It was surrounded by a thick grove of trees that shielded it from any view from the road, but you see the tops of the four eagle statues on the corners of the square if you were up high enough. She had been there for many different ceremonies over the past years; some were more memorable than others, but there was always one that stuck out.

It was an honoring service for a member of the Royal Guard, but this man was an appointed knight that had fulfilled his duty. He was killed protecting the Queen, her mother, when Zelda was only 5 years old. She couldn't remember much about what happened, but she remembered the way her nose stung in the cold air, and how her stomach twisted painfully every time she looked at the man's body and saw the various gashes and wounds that peaked through the new uniform he was buried in. She remembered the heavy hand of her father on her shoulder, and how the air shook when he spoke. It was one of those things that she never could forget.

The clang of metal quickly brought her back from the memory with a quick jolt of fear to her heart before she realized that it was only the Royal Guard sparing in the courtyard below. It was normal for some of the guard to practice during the night after their shift, but most went off to the tavern in search of drink and easy woman, and there was always one person that was in the courtyard every night without fail, her soon-to-be-knight.

She had seen him fight before, and she could see why he would be chosen to guard the heir to the throne. He was one of the best guardsmen in the castle despite being barely 3 months older than Zelda herself and dedicated himself to defending the crown. At least, that was the story she liked to make up about the young knight, but that wasn't why he was chosen.

It was because he pulled that damn sword from the stone. That was it; nothing more. The Sword that seals the darkness was a sword crafted by the goddess Hylia herself, and only one person was fated to wield it upon its creation eons ago. Every soldier had the opportunity to pull the sword after navigating through the Lost Forest, but almost all of them couldn't make it to the heart of the forest where the sword was held. The few that did make it through told of a beautiful pedestal bathed in light was the sword seemingly lazily held in the stone, but when they tried to pull it free, found it held quite firmly in place despite pulling as hard as they could.

When General Soto and the young knight returned with the Master Sword strapped to his back her father was ecstatic. When asked how difficult it was to pull the sword free, the knight said it simply pulled free as if it was gently placed there. He was the fabled Chosen One spoken about for generations, and he completed his destiny like it was nothing.

If only she could do the same thing…

Her stomach twisted painfully at the thought as she walked back to her room, and closed the door behind her. She didn't want to think about that right now or ever actually, but because the Chosen One was to be assigned her personal knight she couldn't help but think about how she's failing at her own destiny.

"Give it time…" she said softly to herself as she crawled under the thick sheets of her bed, "Just…a lot of time." She closed her eyes and tried to think of something peaceful to lull her to sleep, but all she could see was the stone mural that she was reminded of every single day.

 **AN: I'm baaaaaaaaaack :D Did ya miss me? I bet you missed me. A little story Idea I came up with playing Breath of the Wild over Christmas break plus I have two other ideas I want to write out but I'm still fleshing them out and getting major scenes jotted down.**

 **And for those of you who have been waiting for an update on Be your own You, I'm horribly sorry that I haven't updated in so long, but I need to be in a better mindset to write a story like that. The base for the story is a recovery story, and to make a very long story short for myself, I was placed in medical care for suicidal thoughts and impulses and required to go to IOP and almost went to a Pych hospital. I am fine now and I'm doing much better, but I'm not fully there yet so please be patient with me on that front.**

 **In the meantime, please enjoy this little idea I came up with! It shouldn't be too long and I already have a few chapters done so if it does get enough attention then I can just pump those out** **Be sure to give me advice on what I could do better in any aspect of my writing, but lore doesn't matter so much to me since its just supposed to be relationship building between Zelda and Link**


	2. Chapter 2

It had been three days since the ceremony, and she hated every minute of it. She didn't like the idea of someone following her every move every waking moment of the day, but when it became reality she found out that she didn't like it.

 _She completely despised it._

She understood that it was now his job to guard her with his life, but his near constant silence was maddening and made her want to snap. He followed behind her like a shadow everywhere except for her bedroom and study where he stood outside her door until she came out. As a result, she practically barricaded herself in her room and buried herself in her studies unless she was forced to come out.

She sat at the dinner table, but once again couldn't eat. It was cream of carrot, one of her favorite foods, but every time she looked at the bowl she wanted to vomit. Even the smell was making her nauseous. She felt eyes watching her, but she didn't need to look up to see who it was. She had to keep telling herself that this was his job the watch and protect her; she shouldn't yell at him for it.

"How goes your training, my dear?" her father asked as he patted away a stray drop of soup from his beard, "Well, I hope?"

 _No_

"I plan to travel to the Spring of Power in a few days when the roads are clearer," she said calmly, but kept her head down towards the soup, "I've been keeping up my daily prayer, but I still haven't been able to access my power." Her father only replied with what she translated as a disappointed grunt. Not being able to access her power when she was younger was understandable, but now? She should have it mastered by now, but she hasn't heard the faintest whisper from Hylia.

 _Pathetic_

Now she did feel like she was going to throw up.

"Maybe you are spending too much time with your studies," her father suggested, but she was too busy trying to stop the room from spinning under her. Thank Goddess she was sitting or else she would have passed out, "I think you should devote more time to your prayer and training."

"I spend most of my day in prayer, Father." She said slightly surprised that her voice didn't give away how horrible she felt, "I'm to become a Queen, not a nun."

"Of course," he said and returned to his meal, but she knew the conversation wasn't over.

"I think I shall retire early for the night," she said slowly rising from her chair with her hands on the table. She raised her head and started towards the door as she noticed that no one seemed to notice how awful she felt.

"Goodnight, Zelda." She heard her father say, but she was out the door and didn't trust her body to speak. The next thing she knew, she was in her room bent over the only empty vase in the room. She didn't have anything in her stomach to throw up, but that didn't stop her body from trying.

It felt like she was there for hours, but it was probably only 10 minutes at most. Her head was swimming in circles, and her stomach ached painfully from the constant clenching to rid its nonexistent contents. She didn't have the energy to move from the spot she had crumpled in in the corner of her room, and she wouldn't have fallen asleep right there had there not been a quiet knock at the door.

"Come in," she had hoarsely, and part of her screamed to tried and look presentable, but she didn't care. If they were coming into her room, then they probably heard her dry heaving and came to see what was wrong.

"Princess?" someone asked as a pair of brown boots knelt beside her with a glass of water and some kind of soup.

"I'm fine." She said, but she could hide the hoarseness in her voice or stop another wave of nausea from giving her one more dry heave for good measure. She heard footsteps walk away and a plate being set on a table before a gentle hand held her elbow and tried to help her up. She used the wall as support but kept her eyes closed tight to keep the room from spinning as she was gently lead to her bed. She immediately curled into the pillows, and hoped it would be enough to make the spinning and nausea go away; it helped a little bit, but not much.

"The doctor will be in the morning," the person said again, but she really didn't care at the moment. She was already half asleep from all the energy she had just lost tearing apart her stomach, and now that she was under her covers she was falling fast asleep. The last thing she heard was the door click shut and a muffled voice before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

It only felt like she had closed her eyes for a minute before she felt someone gently shaking her shoulder. She groaned, but still didn't open her eyes; she felt worse than when she went to bed and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.

"Zelda," A gruff voice said softly, "I need you to wake up, sweetheart." She forced her eyes open, and the bright light felt like daggers digging into her skull. As she adjusted to the light, she saw her fathers worried face knelt beside her. He must have noticed how bad she felt last night, or whatever maid had come in to help her went and told him. Either way, she didn't like seeing her father look so worried even if it was about her.

"Lady Zelda," another voice said, and she rolled her head to the source. An older lady in her late 60s stood at the foot of her bed with a kind smile, and an old leather bag at her side, "I've been told you haven't been feeling very well lately."

"I haven't been feeling like myself lately, no," she replied; her tongue clicked against her dry gums and lips, and she tasted leftover bile from the night before. Her father handed her the glass of water that had been left on her nightstand the night before, and she took slow sips as the woman continued.

"My names Doctor Addermire I'm the Castle's royal physician." She set the bag down on the foot of her bed; it looked much lighter than it actually was as it sank into the bed, "Can you go over what's been wrong for me?"

She told her about how she hadn't had an appetite for the past three weeks, and that looking at any kind of food made her head spin. She told her about last night, and how she had to excuse herself early from dinner before she was trying to throw up, but couldn't manage more than a mouth full of spit. Doctor Addermire began pulling stuff from her bag as a man's voice spoke loudly from the other side of the door. Her father reacted quickly and stepped out and she caught the quickest glimpse of a Sheikah bard waving his hands about in the air, and his face was quite red with frustration. Her knight was completely blocking the doorway with his sword pointed down to the ground. The bard was getting in the knight's face, but he didn't seem to move an inch or speak a word to the other man. Her stomach twisted, and she felt a chill run up along her spine. Doctor Addermire must have noticed as she turned her attention to the commotion at the door.

"Gentlemen," she said sternly, and the bard stopped and made eye contact with Zelda for the briefest moment before looking at the Doctor, "I have a very sick patient here that would do well to have some peace and quiet for a little bit."

"But I…" The bard tried to push past her knight, but he didn't budge. The bard stared him down, but he stared back silently with an unflinching gaze.

"Come with me to my Chambers Alu," her father said sternly, and there was a quick flash of fear in the bard's eyes before he turned to address the King.

"Yes, your Highness," he replied. Her father shut the door before she could hear if anything more happened, but she was just glad they were gone.

"Men can never learn to be quiet in my experience," Doctor Addermire chuckled as she listened to her heartbeat, "But when they leave, it makes things much easier for both me and my patients."

"Are your patients mostly women?" Zelda asked hoarsely as she dug into her bag for another instrument.

"Men don't like to admit when something is serious enough to see a doctor, so that's why I usually don't see very many here." She said, "They're all stubborn as mules."

"I've dealt with a few like that before," Zelda added with a weak chuckle as she remembered one of the cleaners getting stuck up in the chandelier for three days, but was too stubborn to admit that he forgot to secure the ladder before he started cleaning so refused to call for help.

"I'm afraid its time for the awkward questioning, Lady Zelda." She said as she sat at the edge of the bed. She groaned to herself; she hated answering these questions because they never applied to her, "Ready?" She nodded.

"Have you bee sexually active in the last three months?" Zelda shook her head as a rosy blush colored her cheeks

"Have you had any drugs or alcohol in the past month?" She shook her head again.

"Have you had any uncooked fish lately, like sushi?" Another shake of the head.

"Have you been under more stress than normal?" She bit the inside of her cheek. She was supposed to be under stress that was normal for a person of her bloodline, but her father had been pushing her training harder lately.

"Yes," she said quite shamefully and didn't meet the doctor's gaze.

"Ok," she continued, "Have you traveled outside of Central Hyrule lately to one of the other towns?"

"Yes," she answered once again, "I've been to Gerudo Town and Zora's Domain within the past month." Doctor Addermire nodded with a faint smile that Zelda found herself grateful for.

"Alright, well I think it could be one of two things," she started, "I'm thinking it's a severe case of food poisoning probably from something you ate either in Zora's Domain or Gerudo Town. Your symptoms match up; low-grade fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, loss of appetite, cold chills…"

"And the other possibility?" she asked

"This could all be from too much stress. When the mind is too focused on one thing it can make other basic functions like sleep or eating seem less important. The only problem with that is that stress wouldn't cause a fever or cold chills, so that's why I think it's most likely food poisoning." Zelda nodded weakly and laid her head back to try and process all the information she was just told.

"I'm going to put you on two weeks bed rest and an antibiotic until it shows signs of clearing up," she said as she stood from the bed and grabbed her bag, "I'll be back at the end of next week to see how your doing, and then we'll go from there."

"Thank you, Doctor Addermire," Zelda said with the most grateful smile she could muster

"You are very welcome, my Lady," she replied with a slight nod of her head, "I'll have a maid bring your medicine up tonight. Feel better soon, Lady Zelda." She quietly left the room, and Zelda was left only with only the growling of her stomach to keep her company. She could bring her research books to her bed and read in between her naps, but sleep was pulling her back down as she buried herself back into her pillows and blankets.

Doctor Addermire quietly closed the door with a soft click, and a quiet sigh as she swung her bag over her shoulder. As she turned to leave, she nearly bumped into the Princesses knight who still stood in the same position he had been since the night before.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Sir Link." She said with a nod, "Lady Zelda can be stubborn when it comes to sickness, almost as much as the guardsmen." Link glanced over towards her.

"I noticed the Princess wasn't eating and meant to bring it up sooner than last night." He said calmly. Doctor Addermire noticed a faint twitch of his ears before he returned his gaze back in front of him. She knew the signs of guilt from a mile away, and she had treated Link before for various injuries, so she was vaguely familiar with his habits. The role he had to live up to was much larger than anyone could fill even someone of the Royal Guard, yet here he was.

"I'll have a maid send up her medication in a bit as well as some broth to try and get something on her stomach," she said, but Link remand silent, "Should anything change, come find me right away." Link nodded his head, and Doctor Addermire turned and started down the long staircase to the closest maid station.

 **AN: Anyone that's had food poisoning knows that it is the biggest pain in the ass and the worst experience you will ever go through its terrible. Always clean your chicken children.**

 **Anyway! Zelda's dying (kind of), Link's being a guard dog and 10 points to whoever gets the Easter egg I snuck in here. This story won't be too long, like maybe 5 chapters at most cause I'm testing the waters with writing in this universe because I currently have a much bigger story in the works, but I just want to see how well received my writing style is in this fandom and it looks like its gone pretty well lol you guys are amazing.**

 **Hope you guys had a great friday and I'll see ya next week!**


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